The Harder They Come
by FezzesRCool
Summary: Ron falls off the Astronomy Tower and almost dies. Instead he escapes with Amnesia and forgets everything, minus the fact magic exsists. Set between books five and six. Ron/Hermione.
1. Prologue The Burrow

It was like heaven for Mrs Weasley. No children. Term time and they were all at Hogwarts minus Percy, but she never saw him, apart from at breakfast, dinner and at the weekends (sometimes and usually for only about five minutes), when he came downstairs to find something that no doubt the twins had hidden.

Mrs Weasley was still puzzling over the mystery of Percy when a large, official looking owl flew through the open window and sat on the for once only quite messy kitchen counter. She walked over to the owl, pulled the letter from its leg and sighed as she spotted the Hogwarts Crest on it. "Fred and George." She muttered under her breath wondering how they could manage to do something wrong enough to have a letter sent home, in the first week of term. Mind you, Ronald's second year...

She paused as she pulled out a bowl from the cupboard put it on the side board and lazily pointed her wand at it. Mindlessly mumbling "_Aguamenti" _at the bowl, the owl hopped forward and hooted gratefully as it gulped down the water.

"Yeah alright." She said turning to the owl. She slipped a silver sickle into the pouch dangling around the owl's legs and the owl turned and flew away. She turned back to the envelope and sighed as she decided putting off opening the letter would only make everything worse. She pulled the seal from the envelope and began to read.

Percy sighed, as he finished the report on how to strengthen the bonds between the wizards and witches in South America and stretched. He was ready for work, and as he pulled his briefcase onto his desk he thought about writing to Charlie to ask him how he was. His mind then turned to the weather; he pushed his report into his briefcase and walked downstairs to see his Mother before he left. As he reached the bottom flight of steps he searched for her. She wasn't hard to find, and the minute he saw her he knew something was wrong. She was swaying on the spot and was slowly falling forwards. Percy sprinted down the last few steps, vaulted over the banister and ran to catch his Mother.

Molly Weasley was pale and had tears streaming down her cheeks. Percy sat her down on a kitchen chair and knelt next to her.

"Mum, what is it? What's happened?" Percy asked.

"It's, it's, its Ron. Ron's hurt." Percy picked up the letter that was lying on the floor where his Mother had dropped it. He scanned it quickly for key details and then dropped the letter back on the floor. He looked around the room for a spare piece of parchment, scribbled out a quick message to his Father and called for Errol. The minute Errol had pulled his half dead form from his perch; Percy pushed him out of the window.

"Errol, to the Ministry of Magic, to Dad, fast as you can." As he watched the old owl disappearing into the distance he sighed. He looked at his Mother. Percy's report was forgotten and now Percy was focusing on something a lot more important than his report. Ron.


	2. Chapter 1   Eyes Open

Chapter 1: Eyes Open.

The first thing Ron Weasley saw when he opened his eyes, was a ceiling. Which was a good sign, he guessed. He sat up groggily and the first thing he saw was a small, gray haired witch. She was stood at the side of his bed rooting though a drawer.

"Sorry, can I help you?" Ron asked, trying to add a pinch of annoyance in his voice.

"Yes, you certainly can Mr. Weasley, you can go back to sleep." The witch waved her wand over Ron's head and he found himself getting sleepy. He lay back on his pillows, his eyes closed and he fell back into a dreamless sleep.

When Ron woke up again, he decided to be polite to the witch. And as he sat up rubbing his eyes he expected to find her, but instead found himself being bear hugged by a plump, ginger woman. Stood behind her was a tall ginger, but balding, man.

"Oh, Ron, we were so worried about you. Are you alright, how do you feel?" The woman continued to hug Ron as she spoke rapidly, constantly asking questions.

"Get off me!" Ron yelled indignantly as he pulled himself out of the woman's grip. He glared at her. Who the hell did she think she was? His Mother?

The woman didn't get angry with Ron (as he had expected); she just turned and sobbed into the man's chest. A girl, who looked a year younger than him, moved forward, she kissed the Woman's hair and whispered something quietly. The woman nodded though continued to cry.

"Hey Ron." The ginger girl looked straight at him as she swept her mane of straight, fire red hair behind her shoulder.

"I'm Ginny; do you know who I am Ron?" She asked in a soothing voice.

"Yeah," Ron grunted "You're Ginny." Ginny laughed for a while and then looked back at Ron.

"I'm your younger sister Ron, look, I know you're scared right now, but I'm going to tell you something. It's important you listen because it might help you remember who you are..." Ginny opened her mouth to speak again but the door of the room was opened. A boy, probably the same age as Ron walked into the room, he wore glasses and had messy black hair. Ginny turned around to look at him and beamed as their eye's met. The boy's smile was equally blinding and at that moment it was obvious to Ron that this girl (his sister) was in love with the boy.

"Hi Ron. I'm Harry, I'm your friend. You already know who Ginny and Mr. and Mrs. Weasley are..."

Ron interrupted Harry by shaking his head.

"Who are Mr and Mrs Weasley?" He asked. The Ginger woman turned to look at Ron again.

"Ronald, I'm your Mother, and this man," she said as she gestured to the man stood behind her, "is your Father." The ginger man smiled at Ron and Ron smiled back, that smile felt strangely familiar. Ron opened his mouth to ask a question when the door was flung open with such force it almost came off of its hinges.

"Is he awake?" A voice asked. Ginny got up and moved towards the door and the voice. Harry moved away from the bed, and out of Ron's view. And that's when Ron saw her.

She was medium height, thin with brown curly hair, bordering on frizzy with dark eyebrows and long eyelashes that framed brown eyes that at the current moment were wide open. She was wearing Muggle clothes, jeans and a white long sleeved t-shirt. She was very pretty and Ron could imagine she could get a lot of unwanted attention. She seemed like she had been holding her breath for a long time and the minute her eyes locked with Ron's she let out a huge sigh of relief. Though she stayed where she was she smiled at Ron.

"Hi." She said as if she was on stage in front of about a million people, about to perform a song that she didn't know the words to.

"Hi." Ron said back almost as nervously. She moved closer and was soon stood next to Harry. She held out her hand to Harry and he took it. He squeezed her hand as if giving comforting support and the girl open her mouth again, but this time, she was looking at Harry.

"Does he remember you?" She mumbled almost silently, but loudly enough for Ron to hear.

"No, he doesn't even remember Ginny." Harry muttered. The girl gulped and let go of Harry's hand.

"Ron, I'm Hermione. I'm a friend of yours. Harry's your best friend, so I guess I'm second best." She chuckled to herself and Harry opened his mouth to protest, but she put her hand over his mouth.

"Harry, don't interrupt, you know I'm right." She turned back to Ron smiling.

"You're probably wondering why you're here. You have amnesia. It's sort of a disease you get when you forget things, usually when you fall and hit your head. Well, you see Ron; you got it when you fell off of the top of the Astronomy Tower, and you should be dead by rights, so count yourself lucky." She permitted herself a quiet smile and then looked back at Ron. Their eyes locked and Ron felt as though he could never pull his eyes away. "We're all lucky Ron; I don't know what any of us would do without you." She blushed and looked at her feet. Harry coughed and looked at Ginny, who nudged Hermione.

"Ron, me and Hermione and Harry have to go now. Mum and Dad will stay here with you." Ginny rose and pulled Hermione up from her chair, though Hermione looked as though she wasn't going to leave finally she let Ginny pull her from the chair. As the three of the walked away Ron watched Hermione. She looked like she was crying. Mrs Weasley realised what he was seeing and pulled the screens across Ron's bed to block the view. Ron felt different like something familiar had hit his brain.


	3. Chapter 2 The Scrap Book

After many visits from friends and family (with an Owl from Bill and Charlie) Ron had been told, he could get back into school life. He was happy about this, sort of. He hadn't seen Hermione for days, and still felt bad about what had happened exactly four days ago. He wanted to see her, but at the same time was anxious of ruining their conversation again.

Two days before he was due to leave the hospital, he woke up to find a book on the chair next to his bed. It was large, like a sketch book. Ron opened it and found the words:

_Hermione Jean Granger_

_Harry James Potter_

_And_

_Ronald Bilius Weasley _

_Present_

_Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardy _

_1997 – _

The words were flashing with different colours. Ron turned the next page to find a note tucked into the paper:

_Ron, I came when you were sleeping. I think this could help you remember. Don't laugh. I look awful in most of the pictures. H.G._

Ron read the title of the first page, (Year 1) it was full of pictures of an obviously younger Ron. He smiled at the picture of Harry, who was giving the camera thumbs up. Hermione in the background was laughing. The next page held more of the same, so was page three. The fourth year was the best. It had two pages devoted to it. One of the pages had "Yule Ball" written in gold letters on the top. In the pictures Ron was wearing what looked like a badly made dress with a frayed neck. Harry looked quite good in his green robes and Hermione looked amazing in a stunning pale blue dress. Ron took a deep breath as he stared at the picture on the next page. It was the three of them sat on a grassy bank laughing. Harry looked pleased as though he had cracked a funny joke, Ron was laughing and Hermione was rolling around on the floor. Ron sighed and put down the scrap book.


	4. Chapter 3 Final Confession

On his first day back at school Ron was feeling surprisingly optimistic, he was looking forward to it. Especially seeing Hermione. But the image of Hermione that appeared in front of him as he walked down the corridor was not what he expected. She had tears streaming down her cheeks and was sobbing uncontrollably.

"Hermione what's wrong." He grabbed her shoulders and held her at arm's length.

"Nothing Ron. I'm okay." She tried to pull herself from his grip as she stared at her feet embarrassedly.

"Oh God, Weasley's back and he's already sticking his enormous nose into someone else's business." Ron looked up to see a blonde haired boy saunter towards him, flanked by two large boys.

"Of course, how precious. He's forgotten who I am. What a freak! Falling of Astronomy Tower." The boy sneered at Ron and he instantly felt hatred towards this boy.

"Shut up Malfoy." Hermione said glaring at the blonde boy.

"Oh, sticking up for your boyfriend Mud-Blood?" Hermione instantly cracked, as if that one word had triggered everything. Everyone who was observing the exchange turned to look at Hermione. She had pulled her wand out and had it pointed at Malfoy's throat.

"TAKE IT BACK! TAKE BACK WHAT YOU SAID! YOU ACT LIKE YOU'RE SO BRILLIANT, BUT REALLY YOU'RE JUST A SPOILED LITTLE BOY, WHO'S DADDY WORK'S FOR LORD VOLDEMORT!" She was screaming at Malfoy as tears were sliding down her cheeks. Everyone else in the corridors gasped as she said that name, and Ron wondered why. The blonde haired boy looked scared.

"Fine, I take it back."

Hermione pushed the wand into his throat with more force and glared at him.

"You don't mean that." She growled.

"I'm sorry, I take it back." Hermione glared at him for a few more seconds, pushed her wand back into her pocket and stormed off down the corridor. Ron followed her and only approached her when she had finally stopped. She was on the floor next to a tall tree crying. Ron walked up to her and sat down next to Hermione.

"You alright?" He asked. Without one word Hermione turned and put her head on his shoulder. He wrapped his arms around her waist. They sat there for a few moments until Hermione leapt up.

"Oh God. Ron. I'm sorry." She turned to walk away, but Ron had grabbed her arm.

"What, why?" He asked.

"You're late for class." She said, recomposing herself and wiping the tears from her cheeks. There was one stray tear left and Ron brushed it away. She looked embarrassed and pulled her bag more firmly on her shoulder.

"Come on, you're going to be late for Divination." She led him through the school without saying another word to him; she stopped under a trap door and looked at him.

"In there." Ron looked up at the trapdoor, and then looked at Hermione, but she was already striding down the corridor.

He thought of nothing, in Divination, apart from Hermione and how sad she had looked. He wondered why, but didn't want to ask Harry why. At the end of Divination he left the classroom, with Harry and walked to the Main Hall for lunch.

"Where's Hermione?" Harry asked a girl, who was apparently in their year.

"Well, she was in our last lesson, mind you, she did run off really quickly at the end." The girl replied, and then added smiling at Ron: "Hey Ron." Ron nodded in greeting and then carried on eating.

"We should look for Hermione." Harry said at the end of the meal. Ron agreed, so the boys wandered round the school looking for her. They checked the common room, Hagrid's hut, the library, but couldn't find her anywhere. Ron couldn't help feeling that Hermione's disappearance had something to do with him.

At the end of the day Ron, Harry, Ginny, Fred and George had a game of exploding snap in the common room and then slowly drifted off to bed. Only Ron stayed up, he was worried about Hermione and decided to stay up. He told Harry he wanted to think for a while. And he did, he thought about Hermione and the scrap book, he was just about to get up and get the book so he could through it again, when the portrait hole opened. Hermione entered the room and without noticing Ron (as he was sat at the back of the room) she sat on the sofa next to the fire and smiled as she watched a large ginger cat run down the stairs from the girls dormitories.

"Hey." She whispered to the cat as it settled itself on her knee. Ron stood up and walked over to the sofa, jumped over the back and landed next to Hermione.

"So, is there a reason you've been avoiding me?" He asked, with a small touch of venom in his voice. She sighed at looked at him.

"Yes, there is actually." She said staring into the fire defiantly.

"Oh, really and what would that be?" He asked.

"Well, no reason really." She carried on staring into the fire.

"How close was I to dying?" He asked. Hermione looked at him shocked, as if she hadn't expected that from him.

"Well, it was quite close, you see, me and Harry were at the bottom of the tower, actually we were looking for you. Then suddenly there was this scream, and Lavender Brown was pointing at the Tower, and you were falling, Harry pulled his wand out straight away and did the Levitation, but you hit your head on the side of the tower a couple of times. Then you were asleep for about three days." She turned to look at him for the first time since the beginning of the conversation.

"Oh Ron. I thought I'd lost you forever!" She turned and put her head of his shoulder. They sat there for a while like that, and then Ron slowly tipped her chin up so that they were facing each other. He leaned forward and kissed her gently, and then moved away slowly. She was smiling.

"Really?" She asked.

"Really what?" Ron asked laughing.

"Wait there, how did you find out?" She asked glaring at him.

"Find out what?"

"That I love you?" She asked.

"No wait, I don't get it." He said looking confused.

"I've liked you for ages Ron, ever since the Yule Ball when you got really stress at Victor Krum." She said.

"Oh, well I've liked you since I woke up in the hospital wing. It was turning into an obsession." She looked at him for a moment and then smiled. He kissed her again and after they had sat there for a while in silence he realised that she was asleep.

Ron didn't know if he would ever remember how life had been before, but he didn't care; he had everything he wanted at that one moment in his life. Everything was perfect.

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